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Emma Hardy was born and brought up in the East Riding – a few miles from the seat of Hessle and West Hull that she now represents in Parliament. She attended Wyke Sixth Form College to study her A Levels before going further afield for her higher education, studying for an undergraduate degree at the University of Liverpool and a PGCE at the University of Leeds. It wasn't long before she was back home, however, teaching at Willerby Carr Lane Primary School – a school she taught at for over ten years.[5]

It was teaching that led her into politics. Graduating in 2001 she started teaching in 2004, but by 2011 she decided that she had better start fighting to defend the type of education that she valued and fight against the reforms of then Education Secretary Michael Gove. In 2011, she joined a campaign protesting against school cuts and met Alan Johnson, the then MP for Hessle and Hull West, to hand him a petition. In 2015 she left teaching to become a full-time organiser for the National Union of Teachers in order to put all her efforts into fighting for the resources that schools and colleges needed.[5] She also served as Deputy General Secretary of the Socialist Educational Association before becoming an MP.[6]

Just weeks before the 2017 general election, Hardy was selected to stand for parliament in the seat of Hull West and Hessle when the previous incumbent Alan Johnson retired.[7] She was one of 256 women candidates put forward by the Labour Party at that election.[8]

Following her election, Hardy used her platform in the House of Commons and as a Member of the Education Select Committee[9] to actively pursue her passion for a stronger, better-funded education. In addition to her funding campaigns, she has also challenged the Government to ban informal exclusions worked in support of the teaching of oracy (fluency in spoken communication) and promoted the benefits of a broad curriculum which includes the arts, music and sports. In September 2018, Hardy began to work closely with the women's health charity Endometriosis UK to push for Menstrual Wellbeing to be included as part of the sex and relationship education in schools[10]. On 25 February 2019, the UK government announced that it would be included in the curriculum going forward.[11]

Outside of the education sphere, Hardy is the Vice Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Mesh[12] and has fought a successful campaign to get the Government to back down on the routine use of vaginal surgical mesh in the NHS. In October 2018, the campaign succeeded as NICE declared that vaginal mesh surgery should only be used as a "last resort" to treat pelvic organ prolapse and urinary incontinence.[13] This will spare 1000s of women from the horrific side effects of vaginal mesh surgery that women have endured since 2003.[5]

In addition, Hardy is the Parliamentary Private Secretary to Keir Starmer MP, Labour's Shadow Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union.[5]

In her election campaign, Hardy promised that she would be a 'strong, local voice for Hull West and Hessle' and in September each year, she holds a series of events in her constituency called 'The Big Conversation'[14] where her constituents can help her to inform her agenda for the coming year.

She has also sought to be a campaigning Member of Parliament since her election. Her first campaign after being elected was to secure the funding for the A63 Castle Street development, prevent any further delays and ensure a bridge was built as soon as possible. Following years and years of delays to the project, the building for the bridge started in October 2018 and the A63 road development is on course to start in March 2020.[15]

Hardy has also lobbied successfully to bring money to Hull for a new Children and Adolescent Mental Health Unit. The money was agreed by the Government in July 2018.[16]